Labour Weekend

Here in New Zealand we have just finished celebrating Labour Day. I was really looking forward to a great weekend because it marks the day after which people here traditionally plant out their vegetables for their veggie gardens.

Unfortunately, our weekend started with rain and continued with rain until Monday. On Monday, the temperature here seemed to reach about 25 degrees Celsius and I was loving it. It was truly reminiscent of a Northern Hemisphere summer's day which I desperately miss. I used this nice day to plant out some of my vegetables that I have been babying along in the greenhouse and try my luck out in the real world. I was playing things with a certain level of caution as the vegetables that I had previously planted out had been hit by unexpected heavy frosts and they, well, DIED.

Pulling their tattered and wilting limbs from the ground freed up some room for some interesting transplants. I have managed to plant two varieties of beets (in NZ aka beetroot), Burpees Golden Globe and Chioggia which when cut appears with both red and white sections alternating, think of a bullseye target. Continuing in my stateof garden bliss, I planted out 3 rhubarb plants (Glaskins Perpetual) and a variety of peas called Progress. I also transplanted my green/spring onions called White Welsh and regular cooking onions called Stuttgart Long Keeper. All of the onions look so healthy, I really hope they continue to do well.

This is also the first year that I have taken the plunge and decided to make an asparagus bed. I was able to procure Mary Washington crowns and planted them in a bed that I had ammended with sand and rotted horse manure. Let me tell you that while New Zealand is considered to be clean and green the soil where I live is junk. We are on what at times seems like massive amounts of clay. Not that I feel that I need to justify ammending the soil- ahem.

Anyways, many areas of the garden are flourishing right now so I thought that I would share some of the more cheery spots. Here is the first rose of the season.
A spear coming up in the new asparagus bed.
Here is just one of the many strawberry plants I have growing in our berry house. The house guarantess that we will be eating the berries and not the birds.
Here are bunches of grapes forming on the Riesling vines. If we can get by without frost damage, we will throw some bird netting on the grapes in an attempt to make some wine this year.
All in all, things are shaping rather nicely in the garden.